"The Christian Century" has included a work by Dr. Allen Verhey of the Hope College religion faculty as recommended reading in the periodical's "Special Christmas Section of Books and CDs."

The section appears in the publication's Dec. 4-17, 2002, edition, and includes recommendations in theology, fiction, memoirs and journals, poetry, children's books and music for Christmas. Verhey's book "Remembering Jesus: Christian Community, Scripture, and the Moral Life" is one of the nine theology books recommended.

In the book, Verhey, who is the Evert J. and Hattie E. Professor of Religion at Hope, asserts that following Jesus requires remembering Jesus, which entails reading and understanding Scripture, where the memory of Jesus is found. "Remembering Jesus" examines what Jesus said and did, and applies it to medical, sexual, economic and political ethics. The book also explores the church in relation to Jesus's teaching.

"The Christian Century's" recommendation notes, "Verhey places the scripture's story of Jesus at the center of the moral life without reducing theological ethics to story. While he insists that Christian discernment always proceeds by remembering Jesus, Verhey also recognizes that Christians, like everyone, must constantly make a wide range of choices--about educating their children, about caring for the sick in an age of advanced medical technology, about sexual matters. Verhey moves his way calmly, irenically and methodically through the complex issues of the Christian moral life."

The selections in theology were made by Donald B. Ottenhoff, who is senior editor of "The Christian Century." The other recommendations in theology are: "On Niebuhr: A Theological Study," by Langdon Gilkey; "Sermons to the People: Advent, Christmas, New Year's, Epiphany," by Augustine of Hippo, translated and edited by William Griffin; "The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God," by Lee Griffith; "When Religion Becomes Evil," by Charles Kimball; "The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart: The Man from Whom God Hid Nothing," by Bernard McGinn; "Jesus the Savior: The Meaning of Jesus Christ for Christian Faith," by William C. Placher; and "Saint Augustine's Childhood" and "Saint Augustine's Memory," both by Garry Wills.

Verhey's book is published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. of Grand Rapids, and is available in hardcover for $35. It is on-sale in the college's Hope-Geneva Bookstore, located on the ground level of the DeWitt Center on Columbia Avenue at 12th Street.